KABUL—The Taliban launched a pre-dawn attack on a sprawling coalition airbase north of Kabul Wednesday, one week after promising a new push against Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces around the country.

Seven insurgents were killed in the attack, which sought to pierce the perimeter of Bagram Airbase with small arms and rockets, officials at the base said.

The attack appeared to have been repulsed by the time dawn broke, officials said, although small arms fire was still audible near the base this morning. Five U.S. soldiers were wounded, but there were no fatalities, officials said. snip

The enemy gets a vote.

I am sure tho that the Tea Party (they are coming!) will get more coverage.

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Yeesh. Poor Ishmael. Gotta look Obby in the eye and realise what is going on.

His new book is about ”Jim Crow media” (nothing new, the media manages us in all our hatreds and divisions) and depicts Obby on the cover with winged and tailed demons about to attack. [oh puhleese]

I rather think the demons will be licking the honey off him. Honey he exudes especially for the system we live under.

Poor Ishmael. I wonder how many people actually read the damned thing… ti screams for paragraph breaks. I even agree with much of it, but …………gotta give Obby his due.

Given the existence of the “Jim Crow Media” and “The Nigger Breakers,” how do people of color, progressives and others critique Barack Obama without colluding with corporate America’s agenda?

I have some problems with some of Obama’s policies, but as long as these people are threatening to kill him and his family, calling them monkeys and his children whores and his mother, a distinguished Irish American anthropologist, “white trash” and even worse and assassination threats increase, I’m on his side. All of the stored up bile of white supremacy has exploded like airborne E-Coli as a result of Obama’s election. A Long Island newspaper with a circulation of 30, 000 just put up a photo depicting Obama and Michelle as characters in “Sanford and Son. ” Their new dirty trick is to put this stuff up and then apologize to anybody who might have been offended. He’s not only the nation’s president but chief exorcist. Like a St. Patrick stoking the nation’s lizard brain. The progressives are uncomfortable with Obama because they’ve been opposed to black leadership, historically. That’s why Askia Toure purged them from SNCC. The white males who dominate the progressive media are used to black guys playing basketball. Their opinions dominate NPR, Pacifica, The Nation even though it has a feminist editor. They’re crazy about Michael Jordan. The progressive media is just as segregated as the corporate media which they are always criticizing from their glass houses. Richard Prince printed a photo of a Huffington Post Xmas party. One black staffer!! The opposition to Obama from people of color comes from the fringes. He has a 90% approval rating from blacks, over 60% from Hispanics and he carried the Asian American vote, yet these arrogant white progressives say they are his base and that he is obligated to them. snip

I think Ishmael has forgotten what the wingers and haters called Bill’s mother… and his wife. Jesus… get real.

And yes, there are bad scenarios that may open for Obby, but he bought in, fully. Hell, so did Bill.

If Reed wants to support and defend Obby [“I have some problems with some policies….”], then his children, established in various professions, a daughter is a writer and poet, I forget what the others do… should be volunteering for the wars.

For me, it is that simple.

The last long graph is good on the ethnic rat-a-tat-tat in California cities and towns.

I am remembering cartoons in the years leading up to the Revolution, the one in France. International cartoons, emerging from the UK, from the Low lands… here and there. Cartoons of Marie Antoinette. Considering the era… utter sexual debauchery…beyond debauchery… it entered into dreams and nightmares…

AND… while she was held, alone in the Conciergerie, a woman rumored to have been a lesbian lover of MA, Princesse de Lamballe, was beheaded… usually, if they go there, stories tell of her head being lifted up to MA’s window, and the mob exhorting her to kiss Lamballe’s lips.

BUT what really happened, was her breasts and genitals were stripped off and elevated on stakes up to Marie’s windows.

So I ain’t weeping for Obama. People enter into these business contracts to “lead”. Not a rose garden.

It’s hard to slow down and look at horrifying realities. Jane Mayer, writing for The New Yorker, (“The Predator War,” October 26, 2009), quoted a former C.I.A. official’s description of a drone attack:

“People who have seen an air strike live on a monitor described it as both awe-inspiring and horrifying. ‘You could see these little figures scurrying, and the explosion going off, and when the smoke cleared there was just rubble and charred stuff,’ a former C.I.A. officer who was based in Afghanistan after September 11th says of one attack.”

“Human beings running for cover are such a common sight,” Jane Mayer continues, “that they have inspired a slang term: ‘squirters.’”snip

It’s like being gawd. all those little people on the ground…. pity gawd won’t damn it to hell…

I heard Rand this morning credit Tiger with introducing golf to the inner cities… It’s ”not exclusive anymore”. He addressed golf as if that is the only issue with private country clubs… and declaring you are taking on DC.

Kind of like the Vice Admiral being agasint the Establishment.

We are flying way way out, way past Pluto in the Land of Giant Snacks. We are entering other galaxies of Giant Snacks.

Laughing my head off, Critz ran in PA 12 against the health care sell out, against gun control and against choice/abortion.

I am sure the WH is watching Meg Whitman closely, her polls. She has come out with a hard anti immigrant commercial. It does veer beyond just “illegals”…. NO Sanctuary cities in Cali, if we choose to live under Mama Meg!… NO drivers licenses and NO… none, no amnesty.

Democrat Mark Critz is an asshole Dem, and will be among the worst of the Blue Dogs. So why is it good that he won?

Because this was seen as a must-win for both parties. The (bullshit) CW was that if Critz lost, the Dems would lose Congress. This is, indeed, the only district in the entire country that Kerry won in 2004, and McCain won in 2008. In other words, the lowest of the low-hanging fruit, and a district that HATES the health care reform law.

None of that mattered. Dems held the seat easily despite an early and massive Burns polling advantage.

This is yet another sign tonight that Dems have righted their ship, and while things may not be fantastic for them, the once-expected GOP landslide will have a hard time materializing.

Had Burns won, we would’ve never heard the end of it.

The piece comes with matching commentary.
It’s important he won because he won! And that’s important!
Agreed! Recc’d! Important! Hannity! Boo! Won! Yeah!

Activists advocating a cultural boycott of Israel scored a major victory this weekend as musician Elvis Costello announced he was canceling his scheduled performances in Israel due to Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians.

In a statement published on his official website, Costello said that “after considerable contemplation” he had decided to withdraw from the two concerts he had planned in Israel, on June 30 and July 1. The shows were scheduled to take place at the Caesarea amphitheater, and tickets had been on sale for several weeks.

“It is a matter of instinct and conscience,” Costello wrote.

In a lengthy explanation he provided, the rock musician said that merely having his name added to those appearing in Israel this summer “may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent.”

Costello said in his statement that many of the Israelis who would have attended his concerts are people who question the policies of the Israeli government on the issue of settlements “and deplore conditions that visit intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security.”

Activists with the U.S. Campaign for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel — a group that is seen as part of the broader Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement — launched a drive in early May to pressure Costello not to perform in Israel. Ads on the group’s website called on the British-born artist to cancel his planned concert, stating that just as Costello was a leading voice in fighting against apartheid in South Africa, he should now take action against Israel. “Don’t be silent about apartheid Israel,” the ads read.

The cultural boycott movement saw yet another success earlier in May when political poet and singer Gil Scott-Heron announced he had was dropping Israel from his planned summer concert tour.

In his statement, Elvis Costello offered his apologies to ticket holders and organizers of his concerts in Israel and expressed his hope for peace and understanding.

“I cannot imagine receiving another invitation to perform in Israel, which is a matter of regret, but I can imagine a better time when I would not be writing this.”

I guess what bothers me about it, is the increasing fact that the majority of jobs all over the world are quickly devolving into minimally paid labor in service to the gargantuan vanity and desires of an elite handful.

(This is a duplicate, I think my first post of it may have failed due to a connection issue on my end)

well nothing new about an increased return to fuedalism. But if tourism dollars, dining out dollars, entertaining dollars stay dried up, a lot of people suffer. No two ways about it.

Feudalism, ever increasing maginalisation, co-opting division, co-opting race is why there will nto b a ”comprehensive” (whatever that is in politicians’ hands) immigration bill. We are held firmly in hand by the Chamber of Commerce. Who work closely with DiFi on immigration. McCain too I am sure…

I guess some reporter could, in an alternate universe, analyse where and who made whatever Mama O wears tonight, analyse who worked what at the dinner and what they got paid… etc. But it won’t be happening. If I were Camerford, the standing WH chef originally hired by Laura B, I’d be looking around to leave tho.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wagyu beef in black mole sauce with grilled beans is on the menu for Wednesday’s White House state dinner.

The four-course meal will open with a salad of jicama with oranges, grapefruit and pineapple, followed by herb green seviche of Hawaiian opah. The main course of beef will be accompanied by black bean tamalon.

A chocolate cajeta tart with toasted homemade marshmallows will be served for dessert, along with a graham cracker crumble and goat cheese ice cream.

really gotta run, but will come back with a good cornish hen recipe, it’s actually great for folks with kiddy ovens in studio apartments (where larger birds can be a disaster) for a dinner with someone you care about.

season and sauté pork and giblets until thoroughly cooked, then set aside.

Sauté onions, celery and mushrooms.
Add liquid and bring to a boil.
Stir in rice and turn down heat to a low simmer.
Stir in parsley and seasonings.
Partially cover and simmer till liquid absorbed.
Stir in browned sausage and giblets.

Rub hens with softened butter, dredge with flower, then loosely stuff. Place in oven preheated to 450, breast side up with legs tied. Immediately reduce heat to 350. Roast until tender, basting frequently. Will take approximately an hour or more.

Catrina Wallace, 29, was sleeping in her bed with her youngest child when her door was broken down and she awoke to the feeling of a gun to her head. When she opened her eyes, her small home was filled with police. “I never seen that many police at one time,” she recalled. “Everywhere I looked all I saw was police. There were six or seven just in my bedroom.” She says police pointed guns at her small children and wouldn’t let her comfort them…..

Atheists always use rape as an argument for justifying killing because they want to justify abortion. But is rape really that bad? It’s a horrible experience but you get over it with time. If you use it to justify murder you’re never going to get over it. Imagine you have a painful divorce. Would you murder your children after because they remind you of your ex husband? Of course not. I think any woman would easily tell you that a painful divorce is worse than rape but it’s not an excuse to kill your baby, so why is rape?

people always want to tell other people how to think. And live. And feel. And react. So much thinking and planning and legislating in America is predicated on causing pain, rather than removing or ameliorating pain.

The Quebec National Assembly has taken aim at the Harper government over abortion and demanded Wednesday that it stop being so ambiguous on the issue.

Politicians on both sides of the chamber have unanimously adopted, by a margin of 109-0, a pro-choice motion.

snip

The motion adopted reads as follows:

“That [Quebec’s] National Assembly reaffirms the right of women to free choice and to free and accessible abortion services, and asks the federal government and the prime minister of Canada to put an end to the current ambiguity on this issue, and that the National Assembly reaffirms that the fact of supporting women’s right to an abortion should not in any case be used by the federal government to cut funding to a women’s group.”

Abortion has been front and centre here since the Cons announced they wouldn’t fund abortions for women in developing countries through our international aid programs – and then they blamed the opposition for starting a “culture war” and said they didn’t want to talk about it. One Con senator told womens’ groups – literally – to STFU so they wouldn’t lose their funding because the Cons have been slashing federal cash for groups they disagree with ideologically. It’s been a huge clusterfuck.

Seriously.From watching that clip, Why is he a wacko?
It’s such a tired game. I watched the whole clip off a DK blip billed Rand Paul’s meltdown on TRMS. I was looking for him in Confederate Gray singin Dixie, a Stonewall Jackson beard grown overnight since securing the nom.

LOL. The Dems are goin with Paul! Racist!…. In Kentucky.
What are they doing? Tryin to elect him? If they are going to damage him there, now, (the sound bite banking will be useful later if the guy goes national) but in this race in KY, wouldn’t it will help in having him re-iterate over and over his assertion of “90 support” for the CRA?
Eating into his RW and mainstream GOP cred at the same time?Not to mention , ah, among boll weevil Kentucky Dem’swho have an almost 600 Thousand Plus MAJORITY in voter registration over Republicans. Yes, in Ole Kentuck.

Now he may sleep in hooded sheets for all I know, but he never broke a sweat reiterating his bit as Maddow – lets get real – did the same thing with hers. What about the lunch counters?! Are you saying segregated lunch counters?@!??? Do you want segregated lunch counters at Walgreens?

Paul’s bit, I watched it a couple times to see if I missed a whopper gaffe., perhaps the unrestrained right arm rising upon Strangelovian synapse- but the response was the same flat stock as his Dad’s:
Abhors racism.
Agrees with most of the CRA.
Problems with the Gub.

Oh the kos kids and “Meltdown” on Rachel
So touchy about race in the Dem ….confederacy.
But If that’s all they got to tag the guy with they’re in trouble.

One guy in the kos thread on Paul on the Maddow show noted Reagn and Goldwater opposed 65CRA. I thought that was funny given Obbie’s fellatio of RR and Hillary’s start as a Goldwater gal.
Something the Donks are falling all over themselves to service as well.

Another useful history buff sort noted KY indeed beat back seccession during the Civil War…

For all – my point being – the fuck that it matters now.
Especially Rachel’s Rhodesian historical finger wag in KY.
I bet her use of the Walgreens sit ins is particularly amusing to Kentuckians. As they took place in Nashville. Tennessee.
Carbon eating ancestral home of that famous Nashville clan.
the Gore’s. LOL.

well.. Ob and Hillary want to have it both ways..fellate either or both RR and Goldwater.. AND pretend to sobber at the feet of Martin.

Hil’s problem with her enunciated memories of supporting Goldwater (volunteering as well iirc, she may not have been 21 yet) AND hearing Martin (iirc a teacher took them to hear him), her respect and reverence for MLK and CR… sort of does not square.

Soon she will be telling it as going ot hear Martin thru the sniper fire.

Because there is a provision in the Civil Rights Act which makes it illegal for private businesses to discriminate in their clientele under the interstate commerce clause, that means that private businesses do not ‘own’ their private businesses and [gulp!] to turn that argument on the ‘left’, that means that private businesses can’t disallow people from carrying guns within them. Whew! wipes forehead…

OK – second amendment debate aside – I’m sorry, WHAT?

Let me break that down into a single sentence:

Rand Paul, ‘Because we made it illegal at a federal level for the local racist’s diner to refuse service to black people, it means that anyone can carry a gun into a bar anywhere’. Of course, on top of this he claims that somehow applying the 14th amendment to businesses violates the 1st amendment.

Now, the obvious argument with respect to the latter is that businesses aren’t fucking people and don’t have Bill of Rights protections, but seeing as how the Supreme Court has been supremely bribed to legislate [and I do mean legislate] against people and for businesses since the late 19th century, I’ll also let that go for the time being.

Well, Rand, there was a ‘law’ passed with respect to certain provisions of the constitution. It has been upheld by the courts repeatedly. There has been no federal law passed stating that because of the 2nd amendment everyone can carry a firearm wherever the fuck they want irrespective of state and local laws or the will of those owning private businesses. But, in many municipalities, it is legal for anyone to carry a firearm in the open or concealed wherever they want. And you know what, ‘privately owned businesses’ don’t have a say in the matter. So if you want to point the finger, why not call out certain ‘local restrictions’ – you know, your favorite, ‘it should all be taken care of at a local level’… but no, that would get you in trouble with the NRA, because gun toting nuts everywhere actually want any federal, state or local law passed that would allow them to carry pocket nukes to whatever tavern wherever they want! So which is it hon?

This guy wants to be a Senator, but he doesn’t even understand how laws get drawn up, passed and upheld by the courts?

So, Rand, why are you really against telling private businesses they can’t discriminate? Is it because, like your father, you’re a racist scumbag?

Rand Paul, ‘Because we made it illegal at a federal level for the local racist’s diner to refuse service to black people, it means that anyone can carry a gun into a bar anywhere’. – lucid

But he didn’t say that did he….in riding around the Con Law prof hypotheticals. He used “could lead to…” He used “Many states are saying and gun organizations are saying…” No more or less substantive than “safe legal and rare..” or “in consultation with family physician and clergy” . He’s a Pol. I’m shocked. And Libertarian. Double shock.

At the moment Rachel has transcripts of every show before and after that airing. The transcript of that airing, at the moment at least, is unavailable. The yawner of an interview IMO closed out with a question again pointed at the “bloodied and beaten” at the lunch counters…after repeated assertions by Paul that he “condones no violence” and that people who commit violence against others “should be put in jail”.

Paul at the end, on the last bite at the “bloody and beaten” query : “What I’m saying is that I don’t believe in any discrimination. I don’t believe that private property should discriminate either.I wouldn’t attend, wouldn’t support… Yada Yada “Safe Legal and Rare” .

Do I agree with Paul of mythical Libertarian Land? Of course not.
Do I think he and his Dad are good for anything other than meme propogation on Ending the wars, Choice, Defunding Israel, and Abolishing the Fed? OCNx2. But IMO, that meme propogation is worth more IMO than all the blogs in blogtopia and Dem retainers in advocacy groups combined.
So there’s the ride around the Civil Rights ranch…
But in this country, Is it pretty garden variety politics? I think it is. As is the demi-Lib predilection for framing debate in the 60’s while eating DEM actions ever since… Rachel is better among most, but…quick enough to carry the water…. Not that I wised up till 2007, when Pelosi declared Impeachment “off the table”…..

But IMO, that meme propogation is worth more IMO than all the blogs in blogtopia and Dem retainers in advocacy groups combined.

So there’s the ride around the Civil Rights ranch…

I think i is meaningless that he and Daddy-O propagate a few opposite warbles to the mass indoctrination. Honestly.

It puts being opposed to much of what Israel and the US does firmly in the utter nutcase bin. Because he and his father are fucking nuts. media, esp on camera, always restrains the father on abortion, they only let him go so far.

I wish they would just let him go. Because it would be a case of rabid foaming and calling for the witches to be killed. And then running forward with the bloody butcher knives to do it.

If ONLY the likes of Rand and Ron were unrestrained in what they say. IF ONLY.

meanwhile we will live with the Fed, live with a war monger Israel and US… playing one of the worst dances of death ever on earth. Pace Holocaust.

It does nto matter.

Marcy Winograd is making I guess her third run against Harmon.. oh valiant girl. But she always caves.. Of course the party moves against her, they worry she might not cave some day… and manwhile Waxman, who aside from Israle has a few brains left… has issued letters to the faithful in Santa Monica and the other localities that Harmon represents that Marcy (who is Jewish and quite cogent on the subject) is BAD FOR ISRAEL…

Comfortable in the belief tha hapless Americans, yes many of them elderly retired Jewish and Easter Europeans in that area, will pick Israel over their own needs.

The damned ship is sunk. people need to stop talking about the deck chairs. now it is a waiting game.

Not that we have CR, we don’t. We have various and sundry gated communities, with prices posted at the gate for entrance.

About it. I am glad for what advances were made, but they are being dialed back. Daily.

It all get’s clipped, cropped, and stopped in the media.
Genuine activists that is.
So rather than looking towards legitimacy let alone concentration of voice- ain’t no “movement” let alone one coalescing on media- and I realize it as sure as I know delivery ain’t gonna be there from any Pols….
So rather than looking towards legitimacy let alone concentration of voice……the model – in aggregate – has been something like this from the Left…Chomsky!Cindy! Murtha! 😆 ….Ob! 😆 😆
It does come down to whether you think that matters at all. Or is worth the signal to noise pollution. I have no prob tho with anybody carrying an anti war message beyond the Left and Especially the Donks caged patent on it. . . However nutbar. And preferably carried to people with a little of the peeve in them when the bulb goes off later or very much later- We don’t NEED War? THAT”S where my money’s been going? Same for“The Fed Hmm. Who Doms the Fed??”To me this isn’t a false choice between distinctions without a difference. Not a whole lot happening on the AW left. Just isn’t.
Not a distinction there to choose “difference” My take, anyways.
Not a whole lot of hope for the proles with consumer activism either… ..defined as…. “consumer” and all.

At a ceremony to sign a bill promoting press freedom around the world on Monday, President Obama refused to take questions from reporters. “I’m not doing a press conference today,” he told Chip Reid of CBS News, “but we’ll be seeing you guys during the course of the week.”

So.

At Thursday's debate, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended their Medicare for All plan. They faced criticism from several rivals, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, who described it as a "bad idea," and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who claimed the bill shows Sanders and Warren do not "trust the American people."

At the third presidential primary debate in Houston, Texas, senator and 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Warren also spoke about her stance on U.S. trade policy and how "our trade policy in America has been broken for decades."

After being questioned about the crisis in Venezuela, Senator Bernie Sanders defended his vision of democratic socialism. "I agree with what goes on in Canada and in Scandinavia: guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right. I believe that the United States should not be the only major country on Earth not to provide paid family and medical le […]

Debate moderator Jorge Ramos of Univision grilled former Vice President Joe Biden over the Obama administration's deportation record. Biden refused to answer whether he did anything to prevent Obama from deporting a record 3 million people.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Friday demanded internal emails, detailed financial information and other company records from top executives of Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Alphabet Inc's Google, widening the antitrust probe of Big Tech.

U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday asked a government watchdog to look into the Trump administration's decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tighter greenhouse gas emissions limits that Trump is trying to eliminate.

A lawyer for former FBI official Andrew McCabe pressed U.S. prosecutors on Friday to drop their politically sensitive case against him, citing reports that suggest they may be having trouble securing criminal charges.

Media

from Howl

I'm with you in Rockland
where we wake up electrified out of the coma
by our own souls' airplanes roaring over the
roof they've come to drop angelic bombs the
hospital illuminates itself imaginary walls collapse
O skinny legions run outside O starry
spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is
here O victory forget your underwear we're free
I'm with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-
journey on the highway across America in tears
to the door of my cottage in the Western night

October 7 1955

"a remarkable collection of angelson one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure

Democrats…

Same as goddam fucking forever.
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.